Equity in Tenure-Track Faculty Hiring Program

I have led institutional efforts to diversify the tenure-track faculty at CSUN, a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). From 2021-2024, I held a part-time administrative appointment in the Provost’s Office as the Co-Director of the new ‘Equity in Hiring Initiative’, where my work partner, Dr. Sylvia Macauley, and I were charged with designing and implementing new university-wide tenure-track search policies and practices that promote the recruitment and retention of underrepresented faculty, which is a critical priority at a HSI like CSUN. I worked directly with CSUN’s AVP of Equity and Compliance, Mr. Barrett Morris, to oversee compliance in all tenure-track faculty searches. 

My work partners and I (Dr. Macauley, Mr. Morris) have made CSUN one of the first CSUs to revise the tenure-track hiring process, and our success is being used a model for systemwide implementation within the 23-campus CSU system, which is the largest 4-year public university system in the country. In collaboration with my work partner, we created a new search and screen manual, hired and trained a 9-member team of Faculty Equity and Compliance Representatives to review and certify search documents for Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) compliance, created new training modules for all faculty search committees in collaboration with an employment law attorney, and created a comprehensive set of search material examples and templates (sample screening materials, interview questions, and corresponding evaluation rubrics and scoring metrics), and partnered with CSUN IT to create a software platform for EEO compliance review. All of this design and implentation has helped search committees conduct fair and objective searches that have resulted in the diversification of the applicant pool and more equitable practices in hiring. 

The demographics of tenure-track hiring cohorts demonstrate the measurable success of this program under the leadership of the Co-Directors and Mr. Morris.  These results are distinctive both regionally within the entire 23 campus California State University system, and at the national scale.

• 'BEFORE': Prior to being hired as Co-Directors, 33% of tenure-track faculty searches in academic year 2020-21 were audited, stopped, or cancelled due to problematic hiring practices and compliance concerns. 

• 'DURING': In the 'transitional year' of the new hiring program that we created (AY 2021-22), search committees were encouraged, but not required, to have their search documents reviewed by the Co-Directors and FECRs. The resulting hiring cohort was composed of 47% women and 9.8% underrepresented minority people.

• 'AFTER': In the first fully implemented year of the new hiring program (AY 2022-23), search committees were required to have search documents reviewed for EEO compliance. The resulting hiring cohort was composed of 75% women and 34.2% underrepresented minority people. Even more impressive, zero tenure-track searches were cancelled due to compliance problems or concerns.